


Promises

by Liberi



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Episode: s05e22 Swan Song, Implied Michael/Adam Milligan, Lucifer's Cage, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-14
Updated: 2017-09-14
Packaged: 2018-12-29 23:01:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12095328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liberi/pseuds/Liberi
Summary: When Sam casts himself down into the Cage, taking the archangels with him, he tells Lucifer that he will not be alone this time.He doubts it's enough.





	Promises

**Author's Note:**

> This is from Sam's fall into hell in Swan Song on.

* * *

 

Lucifer is a ball of light and fury, clawing and scraping, screaming that family only leaves in the end, even his brother. Especially his brother.

Blood dripping to the ground from Dean’s shattered face tells a different story and he forces the fallen angel back, just a few more seconds and he knows they’ll make it as the pit yawns open.

The screaming reaches a crescendo, rage with an undercurrent of fear at that darkness before them.

“You won’t be alone this time.”

The fallen angel completely stills for the first time at those words as Sam sends one look back to Dean. He hears Michael arrive, telling him it’s of no use but he falls anyways.

Michael wasn’t supposed to come with them. He wasn’t supposed to be so fallible as to lose his balance in such a simple act as restraining his brother and Sam shakes him lose, as they plummet, remembering his words to Lucifer.

Remembering how much Lucifer still loved his brother even when he was called monster.

 

* * *

 

 

There is nothing. Infinite darkness that looms like the boundary is inches or solar systems away. He is near Lucifer who will not look at him. The fallen angel looks like his old vessel and Sam figures that whatever explanation there is for that, it will make his head implode. So he leaves it.

In all this black gloom that has no ceiling or floor or walls Lucifer is still bright. Sam longs to reach to him. Even separated he can feel the betrayal rolling off that being. The icy ache settling in further, the air heavy with it.

Sam will keep his promise to his brother, he is here. So he waits, finding he can sit and is still capable of sleep as he supposes some things never change for humans. A dark, frightened part of him still waiting for the pain to begin. To feel just what Lucifer is.

 

* * *

 

 

Lucifer is beside him this time when he wakes up. It is almost pleasant to have someone else near as all the waking moments he has been filling with memories and reminding himself why they are here. The threat of breaking, of sliding into madness to eventually join the nothing around them becoming more real with each day.

But Lucifer is still all light and fury, and he looks deep into Sam and he doesn’t know what the fallen angel wants as there is so much behind those eyes.

“You were supposed to understand.”

The devil’s voice is a snarl and hot against his face but Sam refuses to flinch or lean back.

“I do.”

Lucifer looks at him like he doesn’t comprehend but says no more, and Sam occupies his mind, wanting to talk but afraid of failing to find the right words

 

* * *

 

 

“Why did he come from you?”

Those were the first words Lucifer had spoken for weeks, perhaps longer as there is little way to tell time down here. Not that he wants to keep track of the countless seconds marching past them till everything ceases to be, when at least they’ll be free from existing.

“Because he loves me.”

Lucifer turns away from him again and shudders slightly. It takes a moment to realize that it’s a soundless sob. He longs to reach out but doesn’t think he’s allowed to touch.

 

* * *

 

 

This is a strange existence, there is no point in trying to escape as there is no point to escape from. There is nothing outside of the small area they are in and he has yet to see Michael. Perhaps heaven pulled him out.

Sometimes he thinks he hears something but he feels it’s only his mind playing tricks. Trying to fill in the silence with something recognizable because Earth was never this quiet. At times he hums or sings softly under his breath to help with that crushing sensation. There seems little point in trying to get up as there is nothing. So he sings to himself.

He wonders how long it will take for him to go mad.

When he sings, sometimes, he’s aware of Lucifer watching him.

 

* * *

 

 

“Sam.”

This is the first time he’s been addressed by name since they plummeted down here and he looks up, feeling like he is slowly cracking open from the sheer loneliness.

Lucifer is beside him and hesitantly reaches out to touch his shoulder. It feels like all of eternity has passed since he was last touched and he leans into, curling closer to the fallen angel. Pale blue eyes study him but there’s no malice, no spite or rage. Just sorrow.

“This was never meant for you, Sam.”

He thinks he hears Lucifer taking up the singing duty as he drifts back off to sleep.

 

* * *

 

Sam wonders how he was ever so obsessed with time, wanting to know what time it was when he woke up or if it was time to eat. Time really has no meaning here but he still wants to measure it as though it marks a purpose of some sort. Perhaps that he is still human.

Lucifer is holding him, arms wrapping strongly around him and he settles into it. He wants to be touched and even in the silence that scraps at his last nerves he wants this touch more.

“Can you ever forgive me for this?”

He feels the devil’s arms tightening around him, holding him closer as his lips form the question and his voice is rough.

“I don't know. Maybe one day.”

That is enough for him and he sleeps against the ice around him.

 

* * *

 

Lucifer begins to tell him stories of how things were and what he has seen and Sam tries to imagine it all, images dancing in his head that he is sure aren’t even close to the majesty that’s being told to him. It doesn’t bother the fallen angel and they talk of all things that are painful but not so much they can’t think of them.

All things that exist outside the cage are painful to think of but some are never mentioned.

He’s in the middle of a story about how his Father decided hippopotamuses were a good idea when Sam reaches up from his lazy position and brings Lucifer’s mouth to his own. It’s chaste and sweet and he feels a small breath of air against his lips in surprise and amusement.

“Sam?”

All Sam can do is run his fingers through the devil’s hair and smile at him as he heals a bit more from all the grievances that marred his life to free this being. They heal slowly, cracks closing up over time.

“If you don’t like hippopotamuses I can tell you how Gabriel created the platypus as a prank.”

Lucifer smiles at Sam’s real laughter and the hunter thinks this is the first time he has laughed with some form of happiness since they ended up down here.

 

* * *

 

 

“Why do you look at me that way?’

Those ice blue eyes are on him now and studying him intently, as though trying to unravel the mysteries of the universe.

Sam is pretty sure by this point that at least half a century has gone by but that is cage time. It may be mere minutes on earth, he’s not sure.

“I can’t forget but I forgive you.”

Sam received his answer with lips on his own, desperate and needing and he opens to them, letting the chill of Lucifer’s grace wash into his mouth like a reprieve from all of this. Something warm stirs deep in him and he knows something is starting.

 

* * *

 

 

They are a tangle of limbs, staring at each other when Lucifer begins the story of how this happened. Sam’s scared to even move a finger as he doesn’t want him to stop, he wants him to tell this.

There are no grand explanations or trying to explain his actions away or cast favor. Only what happened.

When he is done and falls silent, stiff and still and refusing to look up, Sam draws him into his arms and holds him tightly. The fallen angel is a ball of rage and grief, trembling with anger. He holds him because no one ever held him knowing this much. Kissing his hair, Sam whispers to him that he is still beautiful.

That he is loved, even now, in this place.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Two centuries have slipped by in cage time as Lucifer can keep some track of it as he is still an angel. Sam muses if this is like hell time and is told it is a quite a bit different. Four months on earth is around a century to them.

The thought sobers Sam as he realizes how much longer Lucifer had been imprisoned and all he had to look forward to was his getting out and finding his vessel. The path of grand revenge, the great plan set into motion by his own family. And his vessel, the one made for him that condemned them here again in the end.

Lucifer seems to sense his distress and wraps his arms around him again, stroking his back and Sam cannot help but feel incredible guilt over what has happened.

That he betrayed the one being who could completely understand him.

“You’ve kept your promise, Sam.”

Sam looks up into the eyes and sees awe and adoration and something like complete devotion. It occurs to him that he wants to be with Lucifer like this, here and in his arms if this is the only place they can be.

With gentleness he lays the devil down and teaches him about making love. All his touches backed by love instead of the cruelty and hatred he has so long remembered; the things this place magnified washed away.

 

* * *

 

 

There is the day Lucifer begins to forgive Michael. It’s not with reservations or caveats that his brother is just misguided but forgiveness. Sam’s told it’s learned from him and he bows his head, humbled.

“Do you still miss Dean?”

“Terribly.”

And it’s true, he does. It’s like a part of him is twisting slowly knowing that Dean thinks he is suffering and in many ways they are. He can’t change this, he wouldn’t if it saved the world but that doesn’t make the hole any less real.

Sam doesn’t have to ask if Lucifer misses Michael. Where ever he is, he knows he’ll never get the brother he loved so much back.

It’s hard to forgive someone who calls you a monster no matter how right or well intentioned. Sam knows it’s possible.

 

* * *

 

  
“I love you, Sam.”

He feels his breath catch in his throat at those simple words spoken so earnestly and even the blackness around them can’t swallow them up. Three centuries and then some have gone by and he’s felt it but they’ve never spoken them.

So many words they’ve exchanged, so many whispers and secrets and tears and he didn’t even know how much he needed to hear those words until they were spoken, released. There’s something freeing and right in them as they languidly make love in the echo of Lucifer's declaration. 

Sam whispers that he will never willingly leave him again.

 

* * *

 

 

It may just be his sense of perception but he’s sure Lucifer is glowing brighter. There’s a sensation that something is mending inside the fallen angel’s grace and it’s more whole. When his hands touch that soft flesh that defies explanation here, there’s no longer just a sense of buried anguish breaking. Of loneliness and despair that runs deep enough that it would drown Sam a thousand times over.

Now there seems to be something else there, a warmth that he’s hesitant to call happiness. They are still in hell in an endless prison, how can they have happiness here?

Somehow, they have found some and Sam is not ashamed to hold onto it tightly.

Lucifer is teaching him to speak Enochian and he is slowly getting it though the phrases all seem so flowery in his mind. Right now though, he is distracted as he watches his lover glow brighter and Lucifer gives him an indulgent smile and leans forward.

 

* * *

 

 

When he misses Dean, Lucifer always encourages him to talk about him now. At first it was painful to his lover as his own brother did not come for him but now he wants to hear. Sam has pointed out in the past that he misses his brother all the time and the devil merely shrugged.

“Then talk about him all the time to ease your pain and guilt.”

It surprised Sam how much guilt he was carrying still after all these years, centuries really. It still burns in there and no matter what he does he cannot make it totally go away. He longs to tell his brother one last time he’s sorry.

Then he looks at Lucifer and realizes his brother wouldn’t even accept him back and he understands a bit better. That there isn’t a one last time and he can’t keep drowning. Slowly he lets the guilt and anger go as his lover lets his own rage slip away. Only in pieces but it still starts to slide away.

 

* * *

 

 

There is so much light and it hurts as all he has known is darkness for centuries. Then there is a sensation of wetness as his eyes snap all the way open to the glare of clouds and a drizzle.

Clouds!

Sam immediately sits up, and is relieved the cemetery that he jumped in at is still relatively the same. That perhaps not too much time has gone by while he kept in darkness with –

“Luci!”

His voice is hoarse and loud against the pitter of rain and he laughs at hearing sounds again, almost driven to madness, before he looks around, trying to find his lover.

The old vessel, the one he wore when he was originally freed is lying a few feet away and Sam scrambles, shaking him. Hoping that it is his love and not anyone else. Pale blue eyes met his and go wild for a moment realizing that they are no longer trapped. Sam can’t help but to pull him up and kiss him passionately and fiercely.

“We’re on earth.”

The devil’s voice is awed, eyes wide and staring around at this all, arms still around Sam and then he has a worry that perhaps his lover has changed, is no longer an angel for he does not wish Lucifer to be anything he is not. A shake and a glow from his lover’s eyes tell him all is well and Sam weeps.

There is movement and he turns, seeing something that takes his breath. His father as a young man is moving towards them and he swallows knowing nothing will stop an archangel. Adam is beside him and he watches Michael crouch down, a hand to Lucifer’s face. Those eyes, so alien and cold and Sam wants to turn away, fearing a blade through his lover’s heart.

It feels as though the entire world has stilled to watch.

“I have missed you, brother.”

Michael’s words are ringing in his ears as he watches the oldest of all the angels press his face against the devil. He meets Adam’s eyes, his little brother now crouching with an arm around Michael. The rain is falling faster now, soaking through, and he shivers, feeling Lucifer’s hand tighten in his own. There are no explanations or reasons, and he wonders if Adam is truly alright or if Dean is still alive but he lets himself feel it for one moment. The magnitude of this - that they are here and free.

Dean is going to throw a fit, and he can't help but laugh.


End file.
